


Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man

by Destinee Zara (LadyDestineeZara)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Heroes, But a slice of life none the less, Gen, It's an extraordinary life, Keith is Spider-Man, M/M, Shiro is Mary Jane, Slice of Life, kiiiiiinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 13:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18852400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDestineeZara/pseuds/Destinee%20Zara
Summary: Heroic acts don't pay the bills, but on that moment it was worth a lot more to Keith if that was what took to make Shiro smile.





	Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday (May 16th), but the gift goes to the readers LOL  
> with love <3

Heroics don’t pay the bills. 

Keith should know that. 

If anything, heroics only get him hurt. 

And being hurt either meant more bills or feeling like shit for days. 

He should stop putting his life at risk for others. 

Most people thought he was a menace anyway. 

“Web swinging thug”, “Arachnid hooligan”, “Spider-ruffian” and other names. The editor of the Daily Bugle surely had a pretty big imagination for names for him. The worst part? He was Keith’s boss. Keith was literally paid to take pictures of himself for articles that would speak ill of him. No matter if the picture was of him doing a good deed, the editor would twist to fit the narrative he wanted.

There was nothing Keith could do. 

He needed the money and he was stupid enough to just stop trying to save others. 

There was nobody else. 

Sure, the police could take care of the petty crimes very well (thank you very much). However, the same damn corporation (Galra Tech) that accidentally gave Keith his powers, also created other super-powered people. 

There were way too many freaky accidents in Galra Tech. 

Keith believed that it wasn’t all that accidental.

There was something fishy there... 

He was trying to gather enough evidence of the corporation evil doings, but it was very damn hard. Almost impossible. 

Galra Tech PR team was way too good. 

Which left Keith alone the mission to fight the big baddies the corporation released to the world in a city that hated him. 

Because let’s face it: nobody else would do it. They either lack motivation or power. 

That night he was coming back from one of said fights. 

Some weird lizard-hybrid thing. 

Even if its fangs weren’t poisonous, it had been a tough fight to win. 

Keith counted 3 broken ribs, a horrible wound on his shoulder, another on his leg and probably a mild concussion. His uniform was torn in so many different places that he was almost sure he’d need a new one. 

He just wanted to take a long shower and go to bed. He’d email the pictures of the fight from his phone and then just sleep until next afternoon. 

As he swung back to his shitty one-room apartment, he couldn’t help but feel terrible. His head was still spinning, it hurts to breathe and his vision was getting dark. 

It was with horror that Keith realized that he was blacking out. 

He was already swinging in the alleyway beside his building.

The dumpster lid was open. 

In a last desperate attempt not to plop in the hard cement, Keith just aimed to fall inside the dumpster. It made a loud noise, but nobody would probably care, not at that time of the night in such a bad neighborhood. 

The smell was terrible. A mixture of rotten food and baby diapers. Even if it wasn’t cement, the fall still hurts like a bitch. 

Keith would laugh with self-depreciation if only he wasn’t hurting for just breathing. 

He could imagine the headlines: 

_Spider-man, NYC main menace, in the place he deserves!_

He heard a soft gasp right before blacking out. 

Keith expected to wake up a few hours later surrounded by trash, desperately in need of a shower and some first aid.

What he didn’t expect was to wake up laying on his back in some soft surface. A cat was pawing his face and purring. He could smell coffee. His mask was rolled to his nose. 

He sat as fast as he could, opening his eyes and trying to look around. 

The place was just another apartment in his complex building. It was better furnished than his, that’s for sure. In fact, it was somewhere familiar for him. 

Thankfully, the up part of his mask was still on. 

Before he could stand up, a hand landed on his shoulder. 

"Hey! Easy! Easy!"

If Keith hadn’t already identified where he was, the man sitting by the chair beside him was the biggest giveaway. 

Keith’s downstairs neighbor, Shiro, looked at him in concern. 

"Easy… You’re wounded. You have to be careful."

Just now Keith realized that his torso was bandaged (with something that soothed the pain), his shoulder and leg were stitched and patched, and there had been an ice pack on his head. His uniform was half open and rolled to expose his torso. 

Shiro smiled. 

"Don’t worry, you’re safe."

Keith didn’t answer, and Shiro continued.

"I found you on the alleyway. You’re at my apartment. I patched you up, and don’t worry, I didn’t take your mask off at any moment."

Pawladin, Shiro’s big and fluffy black cat, sat on Keith’s lap, already purring and rubbing on his belly. She’d always do that when Keith visited or when he let the cat inside his own apartment through the fire escape stairs. 

Shiro had moved to Keith’s apartment building just a couple of months earlier. He was quiet, soft-spoken and gentle in general. He looked like an old soldier, with his quiet alertness, scars and weirdly advanced prosthetic. Keith didn’t know much about Shiro yet, and he was pretty careful about what he revealed, but he seemed trustworthy. 

Shiro and Keith clicked right away, which was a pleasant surprise, considering that Keith had been living there for three years since he left the orphanage and hated all the other neighbors. Keith liked to attribute that to his huge gay crush on Shiro. 

Shiro kept his smile.

"How are you feeling?"

Keith was still tense and watching Shiro warily. 

"I’m fine."

He wondered if the police were on their way, if Shiro had taken pictures of him without his mask or if it was something he couldn’t even think of. However, his spider-sense seemed to be at ease, meaning that he was probably safe indeed. 

"Any nausea? Double vision? Dizziness?"

"Just a headache."

Shiro nodded. 

"I’m glad. I watched you fight with that lizard on the TV and I was worried that you had some major injuries."

Keith pursed his lips. 

"I’ve had worse."

"I’m glad you’re ok, though." Shiro gave him a tiny smile. 

Pawladin was very insistent, demanding pets from him. Keith scratched behind her ears absently minded.

Shiro stood up. 

"Do you want some coffee? I think it’s still fresh. And I’ve been told that I make a pretty damn good cappuccino."

Keith felt his face getting warm at that and fought to keep calm and not blush. 

 _He_ was the one that said that to Shiro about his cappuccino. If he had to describe Shiro’s cappuccino in one word it would be “perfect”. Shiro was the only one that could get the milk on the most perfect consistency, the perfect amount of foam, he knew exactly how to brew coffee to perfection and he added two little twists that made it all the better: a pinch of cinnamon and a bit of chocolate. It wasn’t a traditional cappuccino, but it was fucking _delicious_ , absolutely to die for. 

However, he wasn’t sure of Shiro’s intentions on helping him and he didn’t know if that was a sign that Shiro had seen him without the mask.

Also, he _really_ wanted to take a shower.

"I’m sorry, but I have to get going."

Now, where the fuck was his backpack? Was it still on the dumpster?

As if reading his mind, Shiro picked the backpack from behind the couch. 

"Hey, you were carrying this when I found you. But, uh, I’m pretty sure this belongs to a friend of mine…"

_Shit!_

Why must that situation get more complicated every single moment?

"Yeah... I, uh… I saw the, uh, reporter dropping it in the middle of the commotion and I, huh… I was coming here to give it back."

His clothes, his camera, his walled and even his apartment key were all inside that bag. Keith hoped that Shiro didn’t make a fuss over handling it back to him. 

Shiro smiled again. 

"Oh, sure. Makes sense. Keith usually gets too caught up on what he’s doing and gets distracted."

‘ _You have no idea…_ ’ Keith thought, cringing on the inside.

Shiro handled him the backpack. Keith didn’t know if that was a good or a bad sign. 

"I should get going. I’m sure you want me out of your hair by now."

He gently put Pawladin back on the couch before standing up. He still felt a little wobbly, but he was ok. 

He literally had worse before. 

Shiro looked at him disappointed. 

"So, you really don’t remember me?"

The cat was now at his feet, rubbing herself on his legs affectionately while Keith adjusted his uniform again. 

"I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met."

"Yes, we did." he smiled again "It was before I moved here. I was surrounded by four thugs and one of them had a knife. I thought I was already as good as dead. Then you came out of nowhere and Psh! Psh! Psh!"

Shiro made excited movements mimicking Keith shooting his webs. He looked like a child. 

It was unfairly adorable. 

Shiro smiled back on his direction. 

"I wished you had stopped by so I could say thank you, but I’m sure you’re a busy superhero."

Behind the safety of his mask, Keith blushed like a goddamn tomato. 

That maybe was the first time someone called him that. At least calling him that to his face was the first time. 

He sighed, feeling his shoulders lowering. 

"I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who thinks that."

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder still smiling. 

"Hey… Don’t let what the Daily Bugle says about you put you down. You have a lot of fans, especially online. Twitter loves you. The hashtags 'amazing spiderman' and 'spider sighting' are trending almost every day, especially after some heroics like today. And the Reddit thread 'your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man' is one of the most popular on the site. And don’t let me get started on the fanart and fanfiction."

Keith didn’t have any active social media. He used to have a Facebook back in high school, but he never had enough friend to keep the contact with. Yes, he knew what all those things Shiro said were, he wasn’t stupid, he just… 

He wasn’t aware that he caught any attention of them. 

"Oh…" he replied, baffled with the surprise "I… I didn’t know… I don’t exactly have a... social media…"

Shiro kept his gentle smile. 

"You should look up. You’ve gotta lots of fans. I’m just one of them."

"Wow… a pretty bold thing to say for someone who lives right under one of Daily Bugle’s photographers."

"Nah. Keith just really need the money. He’s a great guy, though, and I think he should try to sell the pictures to other news media."

"Have you, huh," Keith fidgeted a little bit (just a little bit) "told him that?"

"Not really. I didn’t know what exactly he thought of you." his smile took a very charming crooked curl "Maybe I should tell him."

Keith hemmed, trying to feel less exposed under Shiro’s charmingly gentle stare. 

"Speaking of which, I have to get going. I have to give your friend his backpack back."

He exited through the window to the fire escape stairs before he could make even more of a fool of himself. Pawladin tried to follow him, but Shiro held her in his arms. He still smiled. 

"See you around."

Keith could only gesture a goodbye before shooting a web and flying away. 

He didn’t go far, of course, since that was his apartment building. 

He just wanted to look as if he didn’t live there. 

Assuming that Shiro didn’t already know. 

Thus, Keith put his clothes over his uniform a few blocks away and walked back to the building, taking the stairs to his floor like any regular joe. 

He took the longest shower he could (before the water started to run cold) while still worried if his neighbor knew his secret identity or not. 

Shiro himself seemed to answer that, for he was knocking on Keith’s door just as he had put some clean clothes on (he was almost running of clean clothes by the way… Shit…). He had a pizza with him and a big smile on his face. 

"You won’t believe what just happen!"

And he proceeded to tell him everything about his encounter with Spider-Man. Keith himself came up with a half baked lie about having Spider-Man just dropping his bag on his head. At least Shiro laughed at that joke. 

Shiro reinforced the idea that Keith should sell his photos to other newspapers. Which sounded good.

He left, but not after giving Keith a surprisingly gentle hug (contrary to the usual bear hugs that he gets). Shiro smiled at his face of confusion.

"You look tired and I’m sure Spider-Man wasn’t the only one a little banged up today." he winked, making Keith blush "Take care, tiger."

He went downstairs, back to his own apartment, humming some silly Spider-Man theme song.

Keith smiled in relief what was probably his first truly happy smile that day.

Yeah, heroics don’t pay the bills, but on that moment it was worth a lot more to him if that was what took to make Shiro smile. 

**Author's Note:**

> **Making off of the Story:**
> 
> Well, hello there!
> 
> This is a little something that I did last year for my Patreon =D  
> The idea is small slices of life in the life of Keith as Spider-Man. This was the first one, and it can **100% be read as a stand-alone story**. There isn't a big plot, just Keith being a good sweet boi and generally being rewarded for that. This first episode is free now (and again, can **100% be read as a stand-alone story** ), and the rest is on Patreon <3
> 
> Here the post for the mood-board for the fanfic and how to read more of Spider-Keith <3  
> Twitter: [[here]](https://twitter.com/DestineeZara/status/1129232405859098624)  
> Tumblr: [[here]](https://destineezara.tumblr.com/post/184933860069/your-friendly-neighborhood-spider-man-destinee)  
> If you want to find me, I'm on tumblr at [@wonderland-s-angel](http://www.wonderland-s-angel.tumblr.com) or at twitter [@DestineeZara](https://twitter.com/DestineeZara)
> 
> Comments help me to get going, you know. Like, SERIOUSLY, they keep me going. I feed on them and I'm always hungry.
> 
> Bye-bye


End file.
